MELBOURNE, Australia — BAE Systems Australia says it is nearing completion of an autonomous navigation, guidance and control package that would allow precise localization of an unmanned aircraft without emissions, satellite signals or even preparatory mapping. The system also is intended to flexibly and autonomously guide the aircraft through its mission rather than forcing it to follow a line of waypoints, to reorder mission priorities as opportunities arise and to land the aircraft without external help.
BUDGET BRIEF: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will deliver his first major address on the Pentagon’s strategic and budgetary challenges at the National Defense University at Ft. McNair in Washington on Wednesday, April 3. The event will be streamed live at http://www.defense.gov. The speech is expected to preview in broad strokes the strategy behind the department’s fiscal 2014 budget request, which is expected to be released April 10 along with the rest of the U.S. government’s proposed budget.
U.S. AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Corp., Aerospace Systems, San Diego, Calif., (FA8528-12-C-0003-PZ0001) is being awarded a $433,518,021 (estimated) cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for contractor logistics support for the RQ-4 Global Hawk fielded weapon system. The location of the performance is San Diego, Calif. Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2014. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/WIKBA, Robins Air Force Base, Ga. U.S. NAVY
LONDON — The U.K. defense ministry says it plans to stick to a common configuration of its Airbus Military A400M transport aircraft as the type enters service in 2014. The U.K. Royal Air Force is buying 22 A400Ms to replace its fleet of Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules aircraft over the coming years. Initially the U.K. had ordered 25 of the type, but the number was cut in 2010 as part of the re-negotiations over the increased price of the aircraft.
U.S. AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc., Hill Air Force Base, Utah, (F42610-98-C-0001, P03801) is being awarded a $12,655,091 contract modification contract for a Dual Source program. The contract modification is to refurbish fuses under the ICBM prime integration contract. The location of the performance is Hill Air Force Base, Utah and King of Prussia, Pa. Work is expected to be completed by June 30, 2014. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013. The contracting activity is AFNWC/PZBE, Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
LONDON — Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) says it has completed development of the Surion Korean Utility Helicopter (KUH-1) and that the type is now ready to start replacing older helicopter models in South Korean army service.
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom has arrived in Guam — the farthest western U.S. territory — to start the ship’s first Pacific deployment, while a probe is still underway to determine why the vessel’s service diesel generators (SSDGs) experienced three brief failures during the transit.
Success in the U.S. Army's growing catalog of work in linking unmanned and manned aviation assets could lead it to reduce reliance on helicopters, potentially impacting the planned buys of Boeing Apache AH-64Es and future Armed Aerial Scouts (AAS).
The Pentagon’s 2012 portfolio of 86 major defense acquisition programs is estimated to cost a total of $1.6 trillion, reflecting decreases in both size and cost compared to the 2011 portfolio, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says.
After more than decade planning it, seven years trying to achieve it and one failed attempt to do it, U.K. government officials have finally sealed a deal to harmonize the country's multiple search and rescue (SAR) helicopter operations under one agency.
Manfred Bischoff, who heads Daimler's supervisory board, first told me about 25 years ago that the French government should abandon its stake in Aerospatiale Matra, the predecessor of EADS aerospace/defense group's French arm. Bischoff was then chief financial officer of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and, like most of his German colleagues, firmly believed the time was right to give the private sector some long-overdue freedom and suppress cumbersome political interference. Although he was convincing, he could not persuade his French counterparts to act accordingly.
While most of the prime and top-tier suppliers that head to Mexico export assemblies and finished products back to their home factories or to customers, an increasing number of specialty suppliers are shipping within the country.
U.S. Africa Command (Africom) is a great idea, but it should spend more time engaging with African militaries and less time painting schools and digging wells, according to a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa. Jendayi Frazer, the first woman appointed U.S. ambassador to South Africa and a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said she “very much supported” Africom when it was created by then-President George W. Bush in 2007, but thought it got its mandate wrong at first.
An article on page 28 of the print edition of the March 25 issue should have noted that the Pentagon is planning to select a non-deployed AN/TPY-2 radar for use in Japan to monitor North Korean ballistic missile launches, adding to the one already located in Shariki. Those deployed to Qatar, Turkey and Israel are not candidates for deployment in Japan. The article in the digital edition of the magazine was correct.
